


I can do this all day

by llenclyen



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:41:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21781105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/llenclyen/pseuds/llenclyen
Summary: How did everyone know that it was Thanos who snapped half of humanity out of existence at the start of Endgame?  Fury was gone, Tony was MIA initially.  Who told the world what happened?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	I can do this all day

Bucky was gone.  
Again.  
Steve had watched him dissolve to ash and blow away in the wind. His friend died in front of him, again, in a place far from Brooklyn. Bucky had been fighting to redeem himself just to die again, and almost nobody knew it.

I can do this all day.

In the hours following the snap Steve had marshaled the remaining Avengers and gotten them all on a flight home.  
Home... where was that now? He had been on the run a few years and with what Thanos had done was there really a home to go back to? How long until he could rest? 

I can do this all day.

His phone rang. It was from Stark Tower. Was Tony alive?  
“Tony?”  
“Hello Steve, it's Pepper.”  
He was both overjoyed and crushed in the same moment. Pepper was alive but Tony was still MIA, probably dead. For all their disagreements Tony was a comrade, and he was gone too.

I can do this all day.

Taking a deep breath he started talking.  
“Pepper. It's good to hear from you. Have you heard anything from Tony?”  
There was a pause on the other end of the line.  
“No Steve, I haven't.”  
“I'm sorry to hear that.”  
“Thank you. Steve, what happened out there?”  
So he told her. He told her how Thanos' forces had breached Wakanda's defenses. How Vision had died, that Bucky was gone, how the Avengers had failed. At the end there was a long pause, heavy with loss. The jet would land soon, it was about 10 pm in New York.  
“Steve, it's been crazy over here. Thanos' snap happened in the morning. I heard from SHIELD that Fury is gone. We've had a whole day without any real answers. People haven't panicked yet, everyone is in shock, but it isn't going to stay that way.”  
He just wanted to lay down and rest. Let the world take care of itself for once. Please Pepper, he thought, don't ask me to do this.  
“Steve, do you still go to church?”  
“Whenever I can.”  
“What do you think everyone in New York, in the world, is going to think happened?”  
She might as well have put a bullet in his chest, it would have been easier.  
“Steve, we need you. The world needs you.”  
“I'll get to the studio.”

I can do this all day.

It was midnight by the time he got there. The others had wandered off to their own places. No one really asked what the others were doing. Being an Avenger didn't stop you from needing to process, cope. Steve wished he could drink himself stupid but that wasn't happening and besides, he had his orders.  
Pepper had seen to it that there was a crew ready to film him. He barely had time to wash up, and he wasn't in his old uniform, the one he had done all those silly PSA's in. This time he was in the Captain America battle fatigues.  
Some of the old crew was there, but there were a lot of new faces.  
A lot of missing faces.  
Was Henry with his family?  
Did John go to be with his dad?  
Or were they all gone?  
“Thank you for coming Steve.” Pepper was there, and looking as well put together as anyone could given the circumstances.  
“I would have prepared a script, but I think you know best what to say, though I think you may need this.”  
She unzipped a large canvas bag to reveal Captain America's shield. He had left that behind when he fought Stark all those months ago. He wanted it back but....  
“Pepper, I can't -”  
“Steve. Right now the world needs Captain America. And if you don't walk out of this studio with it, that's up to you. But this is bigger than whatever fight you had with Tony. It goes with you.”  
He didn't argue.  
He got up on stage. No background was projected. It was a plain room, he sat in a chair bent forward holding onto the shield. He didn't have his helmet on.  
“We're live in five, four...”  
He took a deep breath in and let it out.  
“Hello there. My name is Steve Rogers, most of you know me as Captain America. I'm here to talk with you about what happened today when so many of our friends and loved ones disappeared...”

I can do this all day.


End file.
